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Welcome everyone to the 11th annual Mod of the Year awards, a celebration of the best mods released in 2012 as well as the up and coming whom we hope edge towards release in 2013. For the next 30 days, it's time to recognize the dedication and creativty of so many hobbyist game developers who have given everything to their craft (which, in many cases amounts to years of development). 2012 was a massive year with horror mods like Cry of Fear and the hotly anticipated Black Mesa pushing our servers to their absolute limits with over 300,000 people in one day, all trying to play.

We expect the 2012 Mod of the Year to be our biggest yet - so make yourself count by finding your favorite mods and voting for them! Who will join our first ever MOTY winner Natural Selection, who in 2002 took out the awards and 11 years later released a critially acclaimed best-selling sequel? Up until Jan 1st 2013 join us and help celebrate your community, culture and give thanks to the developers by voting for your favorite projects. Welcome to the 11th Annual Mod of the Year Awards (also check out our Indie of the Year awards and App of the Year awards).

Welcome to the Editors Choice award for Mod of the Year 2012. Here the editors of ModDB have their say on the most prolific mods both released and unreleased to grace our presence over the past year. 2012 very special however, since the winner for Editors Choice Best Overall will be receiving a one of a kind Wally trophy as a physical reminder of just how amazing their mod actually is.

Without further ado, here are your winners for Mod of the Year Editors Choice 2012.

Interaction is a complex and strange beast, it could be as simple as removing traditional controls or as complex as breading a new strain of camera controls. Interaction is not limited to just what lay between the keyboard and the chair. The winner of this award needs to reinvigorate our perception on how video games should be played, and Left 4 Theft does all of that and more.

One of the most difficult things to change in any game is how the player interacts with your modification unfortunate use of IP aside our choice for the Interaction Award for 2012 goes to Left 4 Theft. San Andreas has been subjected to the same virus from Left 4 Dead and the landscape has changed with it. Three different game modes, time travelling, customizable fortresses and more, Left 4 Theft proves that we are not limited to simple interactions in gaming.

To say that a game is creative in it's design is a little like saying it is hip to be different (sometimes). The mod needs to stand out from the pack in both the direction of the gameplay and the overall look and feel of the project. Brutal Doom is one of those mods.

Doom ain't what it used to be, once a fear ridden experience has grown into more of an action set piece, so why not take it one step further and play Brutal Doom? Ratcheting up the blood lust to 11 Brutal Doom comes packaged with combat finishers, new weapons and small touch ups that are littered throughout this mod. Leaving the gameplay of Doom 1 and 2 relatively untouched bringing brutality, gore and attitude to the table. The only price of admission is your nostalgia, is it worth it?

Without communities mods would be nothing more then a static object on the web, communities are responsible for keeping mods relevant, motivating the developers and expanding on the mod in their own way. To win the Community Award the mod needs to support the fanbase around the modification giving the masses a chance to participate within the overall design of the mod. Cry of Fear is the most deserving this year.

When mods release few give any thought to community, little to the thought of custom content,
and even less than that to fan sites. So when a mod like Cry of Fear comes about and ticks every single box it is very hard to ignore. Cry of Fear has released to date 12 community made campaigns, supports an active community of fans/artists over on their facebook profile and like it or not has gathered a following of "imaginative" fans.

Just about anyone can create a world in a game, you could simply say this boxed room is a world and be done with it. That will not cut it for Editors Choice. To even be considered for the Worldly Award you must first create a world, then fill it with lore, places to explore and no shortage of a looming threat helps as well. G String is the winner for 2012!

It takes a particular type of brass to create a mod all on your own, but to make it exceptionally detailed, with history and interesting pockets of art it is now worthy of achievement. G String Part One just missed out on last years awards however we cannot over look this mod. The best thing you can do for yourself is to just experience what G String has to offer. This mod comes highly recommended!

Art direction and style is very elusive, sometimes it is used to make up for the lack of skills, other times correct use can create feelings or drive player intentions. To even be nominated for the Visuality award mods need to have either represent a style or present a new one that is unique. Hyrule Total War proves that it is all possible.

Only modifications can take an existing IP and create a brand new game never dreamed up by the original developers. Hyrule Total War leverages the races from just about all the Zelda games then creates 21 diverse factions each with a variety of heroes and unit types. What stands out the most is how visually striking the mod actually is. All the vibrance and colour you know and love is here and it is damn beautiful in motion. A job well done!

New unreleased mods appear all the time, it takes something really special to announce and make an impression. You need to have something considerable to show, have an intriguing presence/idea and capture the attention of a large audience not just on ModDB. Faceless did just that.

When Slender the Eight Pages exploded onto the internet it was no surprise to see modders take to the Slenderman legend. The best one that has graced ModDB over the past year without a doubt is Faceless. Visually striking, mysterious with a promise of exceptional cooperative horror experiences. With only the developers word to base our excitement, lets see what they can do next year.

Overhauls are unique to modding culture. Gamers who are fed up with lackluster titles create their own patches and content packs without altering the original game too drastically. To be nominated the mod needs to keep the original game in mind and only expand on gameplay/new content plus be exceptional. The DarthMod series has this in spades!

This years Overhaul award won't be given to a particular mod, but rather to a series of overhaul modifications created by DarthMod Productions. Created for Empire: Total War, Napoleon: Total War, Total War: Shogun 2 and Rome: Total War, the DarthMod series vastly improves AI, battles, campaigns adds new content like maps, units and textures then wraps it all up with realistic gameplay changes. If you plan to play these Total War games in the future, you owe it to yourself to install the DarthMods mods.

To even qualify for Best Multiplayer for Editors Choice you need two things. First you need to be released and a new IP within 2012 and secondly you need to be super fun with other people. DayZ gets two ticks!

Creating lasting experiences and stories through emergent gameplay is the golden egg laying goose of game design, many triple A games try and most fail. When it works the gaming community will latch onto it and explore this idea to death. We just never expected a modification for Arma 2 to be the catalyst. DayZ while broken and flawed mostly because of host engine is just so very remarkable and over 1.4 million players agree. Even if it is not your cup of tea, the experience is worth it.

2012 has seen so many awesome singleplayer modifications, it was very hard to pick just one winner, just take a look at our top 100 to get a vague idea of the quality we were dealing with when we made this selection. However in the end there NEEDS to be a winner, and that winner is Cry of Fear.

After 4 years of development, Cry of Fear's release was nothing less than spectacular. Not only is Cry of Fear immersive, detailed and spooky the mod will make a lasting impression on the player. The story of Simon and his struggles plays like a thriller, twisting and turning until it clicks in your mind just what is going on. Brooding and satisfying, do not miss this one.

3DayZ
A 225 km2 open world post-soviet state wiped out by an unknown infection. Go Solo, team up with friends or take on the world as you choose your path in this brutal and chilling landscape using whatever means you stumble upon to survive.2Cry of Fear
You wake up in a dark alley, not knowing anything. What has happened anyway? You struggle after the truth and answers. Answers you want to know in the darkness and fear, which makes your heartbeat race like violent blows against your head. Where do "they" come from? It's time to head out and find the answers.1Misery
Misery is the exact opposite to what the title will have you believe. Misery creates a world that no longer revolves around the player, giving you a reason to salvage, repair, eat and co-exist with your fellow stalkers. All of this to further drive you into the world which for better or worse wants you to die, and we would not have it any other way.

I personally did not like it very much. This is after all the editors choice. Normally I play games and mods that choose to do things differently, while it was well done it was not something I dove into with as much eagerness as the titles above.

While I appreciate that not everyone loved it, I think that in terms of what the team delivered with what some people are hesitant to even call a mod due to it's sheer size and scope, Black Mesa deserves at the least an honorable mention. Anyway just my thoughts. I do not mean to take away from the winners, as they are all well deserving. I just thought it odd that one of the biggest releases of the year and, dare I say, one of the most anticipated mods of all time, didn't even receive a mention.

What did you expect?
They listed 137 mods released or updated in 2012 in their "MOTY Year in Review" articles and they didn't mention Black Mesa - one of the biggest and most ambitious mod ever made. Apparently there were 137 more important mods this year - fascinating.

I see two options. 1. MODDB recognizes that Black Mesa clearly has bigger and better things coming to it completely independently of this community, and doesn't want to overshadow all the other amazing mods with one thats already receieved a GIGANTIC amount of attention, and was among the first to be Greenlit on Steam. 2. Black Mesa, despite its voracious fan base, is simply a remake and nothing more and therefore undeserving of mention in comparison to other games that all brought original gameplay concepts to the table rather than just touching up some old ones.

Beyond that... I can't think of a single reason why BMS would not have come up here, and agree that it should have taken at least one of the 3 that were given to CoF. Yes Cry of Fear was great and deserving of 2nd place best overall OR best community AND/OR best single player... but all 3? I disagree.

The second option would be kind of arrogant don't you think, as yes maybe they didn't think up the game, but the entire team still put just as much hard work as other mods, if not more, to try and deliver a polished and stellar product.

I personally fail to see how remaking one of the most solid and fun games of all time serves to somehow make them less deserving of recognition just because it's a remake.

Cry of Fear got 2nd place best mod because most games who get best singleplayer mod usually make it to the top 3 best mods, and the community award was well deserved. So I fail to see how BMS should be on the list. Editors Choice has no honourable mention list, your thinking of Players Choice.. theres plenty of opportunities in the MOTY and it really all comes down to opinion which is what choice is.

I certainly see Misery as a vast improvement on CoP, but as someone who thought CoP was crap in comparison to SoC, I don't see how much you can actually change. The landscape remains uninteresting, even with all the touch ups you can add to it.

Your technical accomplishments are amazing, but CoP itself is still a bare and empty game compared to SoC.

However Brutal Doom for a Creativity Award?!? Really? Did I miss something? Does it have rainbow colored gore with blue unicorns flooding out of fatal wounds or what makes adding gore to a game suddenly so creative?
Don´t get me wrong, adding gore can make a game more fun for sure...but fun is not creativity and just adding gore is not the most creative thing I can think of! So why is Brutal Doom even on the short list of that award! Anyone?

No, I didn´t know, thats why I was asking! From what I´ve seen so far I can´t justify a creativity award even though it looks like a lot of fun! Even in the video they say it doesn´t add much to the gameplay!

I agree, i've seen far more creative mods. Look at the Radiant Flux mod for Fallout New Vegas. It's turning a post apocalyptic game into a futuristic game with incredible looking worlds. I'll just guess they didn't look around too much.